Thursday, February 07, 2008

The curse of Dr Fu Manchu

A search suggests I've never shared a lionfish on these pages which seems remarkable. I won't start with the standard Volitans lionfish which are currently taking over the East Atlantic - they're a little too traditional. Check out this dwarf twin-spot lion known in the aquarium trade as Fu Manchus due to that awesome moustache.

I took this at night and this chap is demonstrating the full array of defenses available to him. You can see the prominent eyespots on his second dorsal, the first dorsal has an array of venomous spikes and the pectorals spread to give a bright flash as a shock defense. to get a better view of the Fu Manchu's amazing defenses you can see the picture in a larger format here.